All Chapters of Her Enemy’s Forbidden Temptation : Chapter 11

The café smelled of wet wool and burnt espresso. Rain streaked the windows in long, silver lines, turning the city outside into a smeared watercolor. I sat in the back booth with my back to the wall, hood still up, hands wrapped around a mug of coffee that had gone cold twenty minutes ago.I hadn’t touched it.My phone lay face-down on the table. Inside it, the hidden folder waited like a loaded gun: the bank transfer, the dashboard screenshot, the voice memo from Ash’s townhouse. Three pieces. Not enough to win anything yet, but enough to remind me I wasn’t walking into this meeting naked.Detective Marcus Brooks was ten minutes late.When he finally pushed through the door, shaking rain from his dark coat, the room seemed to tighten around him. Tall, broad-shouldered, mid-forties, the kind of face that looked kind until you noticed how still his eyes were. He spotted me instantly and crossed the floor without hurry, boots leaving wet prints on the tile.“Ms. Kingsley,” he said, slid